Like many angst-ridden teenagers in the 1980s, I was a huge fan of Surrealism. Most idolized Salvador Dali, but I loved Rene Magritte and his paintings of massive boulders hovering over the sea, the locomotive that churned forth from a fireplace and the pipe that wasn't a pipe at all. Museum-goers will get the chance to explore the complexities of this art movement when 'Surrealism and Beyond: In the Israel Museum, Jerusalem' at the Cincinnati Art Museum through May 17.   

It seems possible that the four concurrent exhibitions now presented at Carl Solway Gallery are meant to link abstract artists from the past to two contemporary artists who grapple with abstraction, color, humanity and nature. I wish there were more show-stoppers to see, but the four artists provide ample visuals for consideration.   

Patrons of the Taft Museum of Art know it to be a rare kind of historical document: An earlier era's furniture, artwork and architecture summon an aura of rigid manors, ladies teas and regency gowns. It's not surprising then that the Taft would aim its curatorial eye on the traveling exhibition, 'Fashion in Film: Period Costumes for the Screen.'  

"It's like chess," Tom Bacher says of his self-invented process for painting. "I have to think 20 moves ahead." The results of this strategic approach to making art, 'Luminous Paintings by Tom Bacher,' opens Friday in the downtown Aronoff Center for the Arts' Weston Art Gallery.  

In the 1970s, Cincinnati's Patricia Renick was one of a generation of women sculptors who came into their own as wildly influential artists who broadened the possibilities of what sculpture and art could look like. It could even look like a cross between a stegosaurus and a Volkswagen.  

As Barack Obama prepares to become America's 44th president on Jan. 20, there are many who see something of themselves in his progressive, time-for-a-change victory against the ruinous Republican status quo. Those include visual artists working on the fringes, showing in urban co-op galleries with limited hours or in coffee houses and group shows at alternative spaces.   

In what was a tough year all around, the visual arts scene in Greater Cincinnati managed to stay its ground in 2008. The primary presences are our museums, and they all had good years art-wise, although the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) was forced to make some staff layoffs late in the year as the national economy tanked.  

Collaboration is a very active verb in Robin Guarino’s vocabulary.The new J. Ralph Corbett distinguished chair in opera at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music is widely acclaimed for her work with stage designers, choreographers and performers and recognized as an innovative educator training students in the arduous pursuit of a professional opera career.   

Noticing how individual works play off each other can give a new slant to looking at an exhibition, allowing you to think like a curator. Contemporary Printmaking at Manifest Gallery offers such a rewarding opportunity.   

"I had a Eureka moment," Jimi Jones told an audience at a lecture last week for his current exhibition at downtown's Weston Art Gallery. The longtime active member of the Cincinnati arts scene had discovered he could incorporate pixels (the building blocks of computer graphics) into his paintings. Results of that breakthrough can be seen in the show's vibrant works.  

Ed and Nancy Rosenthal haven't technically opened their home to the public, but this exhibition at the Taft Museum of Art allows us a peek into their life just the same. The show documents an art collection that began in 1980 with a 3-foot-tall Chinese vase. From there, the Rosenthals ventured on a collecting odyssey as they traveled throughout China and New York and chose pieces that struck them. As such, their collection runs the gamut of media, size, form, era and technique.   

Andrew Au is a fellow of infinite jest who takes infinite pains to commit his jests to paper. For his text accompanying this show, he's adopted an antique style, reflective of biblical pronouncements but also handy in sending up scientific jargon. He has so much fun with it that senses reel.  

In December 2004, Virginia-based artist Duane Keiser began making one small painting a day, posting them on his blog and selling them at very affordable prices. Over the past four years, Keiser's A Painting a Day blog received a flurry of national media attention and. Now local artists are joining the blogging movement.  

Althea Murphy-Price is fascinated by the everyday fashion show of our lives, where we all walk around projecting and revealing information about ourselves through the hairstyles we sport, what we wear and all the superficial details that make up our self-images.  

The Lloyd Library doesn't receive as much foot traffic as the public library a few blocks away. Most people probably don't realize that its quiet Plum Street building houses a phenomenal collection of medical, botanical, natural history and travel books dating as far back as the 15th century. Book artist Kate Kern served as artist-in-residence at the Lloyd Library over the summer, and works of art resulting from her stay, made mostly by non-artists, are now on view through Dec. 30.